Neil Peart HYF/Presto kit in storage (see pics). Who owns this?

DaleClark

DaleClark

Senior Member
Just saw these on an old Twitter post where a person in Canada said they took a road trip to see the drums in person. Nothing else said. The drums do look road worn. Some gold lugs replaced with Ludwig chrome lugs. One bass drum missing the Tom mount ( I believe Neil used A Tama mount on the main bass drum). Some of the Premier bass drum T rods appear to be missing. I’m guessing this is the exact kit complete with Tama gong drum. The kit was used for two tours and three albums.

Does anyone know who actually owned these? Looks to be a fun restoration project.
 

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Stroman said:
Those drums have newer looking Monroe badges. I don't believe they are Neil's? But maybe. I'll have to check my dates.

I was thinking the referenced kit was in a museum, and I used to have a bookmark for the link. Perhaps that was the second Ludwig kit, though.
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I used to be so sure of my memory, but not any longer!
 
I'm just not sure about the badges. I don't think the earliest ones had serial numbers, but by the time Roll the Bones was being toured, they may have.
 
Stroman said:
I'm just not sure about the badges. I don't think the earliest ones had serial numbers, but by the time Roll the Bones was being toured, they may have.
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I believe the Counterparts kit is in the Canada Music museum. It has, I believe, a different bass drum. Possibly Neil’s 22 inch warm up kit bass drum. The actual concert kit had a 24.
 
Yes, the Counterparts kit is the one I was thinking of, I guess.

I didn't think that tour used a 24" BD? My tour book says it's the same kit as Roll the Bones, with a new color. And my Roll the Bones tour book specifically mentions switching to 22".

Yes, I'm an old Rush nerd. I saw virtually every tour from 1979 to the end, and still have most of the tour books. I devoured them like candy! Lol
 
This thread got me going down a few rabbit holes! Lol

The more I dig, though, the more I think these could be Neil's drums after all. They are in rough shape, and some things don't look correct (different color lugs on the small tom for example) but it has been a long time.

The two BD sizes puzzle me - they were 24" for Presto/HYF, and he switched to 22" for Roll the Bones. I don't know why he'd have had both sizes in the plum colored kit, but who knows.

Anyway, a very interesting thread to me (obviously!). It would be cool to find out more about these drums.
 
Stroman said:
This thread got me going down a few rabbit holes! Lol

The more I dig, though, the more I think these could be Neil's drums after all. They are in rough shape, and some things don't look correct (different color lugs on the small tom for example) but it has been a long time.

The two BD sizes puzzle me - they were 24" for Presto/HYF, and he switched to 22" for Roll the Bones. I don't know why he'd have had both sizes in the plum colored kit, but who knows.

Anyway, a very interesting thread to me (obviously!). It would be cool to find out more about these drums.
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Check out the Drum History Podcast Episode 197 on YouTube interviewing Paul Wells. If I remember correctly Neil did a Buddy Rich Tribute concert in 1991 and showed up with a plum kit that had a 22-inch bass drum. Paul Well conjectures that when Neil ordered the plum colored kit he ordered it with both a 22-inch and a 24-inch bass drum and made up his mind to change his kit up and go with the 22-inch bass drum for his touring kit (maybe recording with the 24-inch bass drum). Possibly he might have been inspired to do this after playing the Buddy Rich Tribute kit. That would explain the kit having the two different bass drum
sizes. I wouldn’t testify in court about this but I hope my memory is accurate about how Paul Wells sees it. I’m open to being corrected here.
 
Vintage Old School said:
Check out the Drum History Podcast Episode 197 on YouTube interviewing Paul Wells. If I remember correctly Neil did a Buddy Rich Tribute concert in 1991 and showed up with a plum kit that had a 22-inch bass drum. Paul Well conjectures that when Neil ordered the plum colored kit he ordered it with both a 22-inch and a 24-inch bass drum and made up his mind to change his kit up and go with the 22-inch bass drum for his touring kit (maybe recording with the 24-inch bass drum). Possibly he might have been inspired to do this after playing the Buddy Rich Tribute kit. That would explain the kit having the two different bass drum
sizes. I wouldn’t testify in court about this but I hope my memory is accurate about how Paul Wells sees it. I’m open to being corrected here.
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You may be on to something there. The original plum kit was merely the old white(pinkish white, that is) kit refinished to the plum color. That kit had two 24s. But it's entirely feasible that he ordered a matching 22 for the Buddy Rich gig. It would make good sense that he had both and compared them.

EDIT - I actually just caught a portion of that podcast the other day, but hadn't made it to the HYF/Presto era yet. :D
 
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The Plum kit for Presto was indeed the Pink Ludwig re-finished. It had 24" bass drums.

The blue kit for Roll the Bones was a different set. It had a 22".

The smaller bass drum for the Buddy Rich show was the 20" bass drum Neil had made for his e-kit.
Up until he switch to roland, he always used aa acoustic bass drum on his e-kit. On the Red Tama kit it has been am 18", but on the plum kit it was a 20".

Seen here: Neil_b&W.jpg

Neil_buddy_rich_1991_2.jpg
 
Hmmm I'm not certain it's the "e-kit" bass drum. On the pic below, there is a sideways cymbal mount on the 20 inch. Plus the BR kit looks to ditch the Premier T rods. I'm betting Neil has smaller practice kits by this time in a warm-up room. Neil may indeed requested smaller bass drum versions for recording or whatever reason.
Screenshot 2023-04-15 at 5.55.31 PM.png
 
Gump didn't know the whereabouts of this kit. I think he said it was given away by MD and he didn't know what had happened to it.

Seems like a cool find!
 
Here's another view of the "e drum" bass drum (same kit- earlier color). The cymbal mount is not centered.

Screenshot 2023-04-15 at 9.22.24 PM.png
 
One thing to point out. The drums in the first post seem to have the Ludwig badging around the grommet/vent hole of the bass drum that is shown. Neil was big on not displaying "branding" on his kits back then. The pick here clearly shows the grommet hole without a badge. Plus, If Neil was going to the trouble of customizing the paint job, why not remove the badging altogether? Now, the badging could have been reinstalled for the drum giveaway, especially if Ludwig was a part of the promotion.

HYF-1.jpg
 
Stroman said:
It's not centered, but it's also not located in the same spot as the pic in the OP. Plus, that off-center mount hole is on the larger bass drum. Very odd.
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I'm now wondering if the kit in the original post is real or a replica. Unless the kit fell off a semi-truck, I see no reason the bottom Tom Lugs would be missing and replaced with off-the-shelf chrome lugs.
 
The badge serial number on the tom from the first post is "3224461". However, I cannot find any serial # reference site that has serial numbers past the 70's
 
DaleClark said:
The badge serial number on the tom from the first post is "3224461". However, I cannot find any serial # reference site that has serial numbers past the 70's
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I have tried figuring that out myself, but from what I gather, the serial numbers on the Monroe badges can't be reliably dated.

It's fun trying to sleuth this stuff out, but I don't know if we'll ever have the real or complete answer. It's much like trying to deal with any vintage drums, much less ones possibly owned by famous people.
 
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